In  Memoriam. 


Rev  John  Newton  Forman 


ll)  580 

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A 

w 


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■ 


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memorial 
minute 
adopted  bp 
tbe  Board  of 
foreign 
| missions  of 
the 

I Presbyterian 
| CDurcb  in  tbe 
United  States 
of  America, 
0 December  17, 
191 7. 


v/ 

X the  sudden  death  of  the  Rev.  John  X.  Forman  on 
Xovember  24th  at  the  Western  Theological  Seminary  in 
Pittsburgh,  the  .Board  recognise  that  the  mission  cause 
in  India  and  throughout  the  world  has  suffered  an  im- 
measurable  loss.  In  recording  its  grief  at  the  death  of  one  of  its  most 
beloved  and  revered  representatives  it  desires  also  to  express  its 
estimate  of  the  character  and  influence  of  one  of  the  most  devoted  and 
richly  fruitful  lives  of  our  generation. 

John  Xewton  Forman  was  born  in  Amritsar,  India,  on  July  11, 
18G3.  His  father  was  Charles  William  Forman,  who  went  to  India  as 
a missionary  of  the  Board  in  1847,  and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  a 
pioneer  work  in  the  Panjab,  the  creator  of  the  work  of  Christian 
education  in  India  beyond  the  Sutlej,  the  intimate  friend  of  John 
Lawrence,  a tireless  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  and  a missionary  of  the 
apostolic  and  heroic  mould.  Five  of  Charles  Forman’s  children 
returned  to  India  as  missionaries  to  continue  and  enlarge  the  work 
ot  their  father. 

John  was  educated  at  Wabash  College,  where  he  took  his  pre- 


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paratory  course  and  the  Freshman  year,  and  at  Princeton  College,  where 
lie  was  graduated  in  1884.  The  next  two  years  he  spent  in  Princeton 
Theological  Seminary.  In  188G  the  first  of  the  summer  student  conferences  was 
held  at  Mr.  Moody’s  invitation,  and  there  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement  for 
Foreign  Missions  began  with  the  declaration  of  missionary  purposes  by  one  hundred 
of  the  *251  students  who  had  assembled  at  Mount  Hermon.  The  following  year 
1886-87  was  spent  by  Mr.  Forman,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Wilder,  in  visiting  the 
colleges  and  universities  of  the  U.S.  and  Canada  in  the  interest  of  this  movement. 
And  hundreds  of  missionaries  all  over  the  world  to-day  and  thousands  of  students 
in  Canada  and  America  look  back  to  that  year  and  to  the  influence  of  John  Forman 
as  the  beginning  of  their  real  life.  From  his  great  earnestness  and  the  controlled 
passion  of  his  utter  loyalty  to  Christ  and  to  the  cause  of  Missions,  young  men  and 
women  caught  such  visions  of  love  and  duty  as  have  never  faded  away.  At  the 
tidings  of  his  death  the  memory  of  his  face  and  his  pleading  voice  will  come  back  to 
those  men  and  women  in  all  lands  of  the  earth,  and  they  will  thank  God  again 
for  all  that  his  life  has  meant  to  their  lives. 

After  this  year  among  the  students  of  our  educational  institutions,  Mr.  Forman, 
instead  of  returning  to  the  Seminary,  felt  that  lie  ought  at  once  to  go  out  to  the 


2 


mission  field  in  order  to  help  those  who  had  enlisted  for  the  missionary  work  to 
realize  its  urgency  and  importance  of  instant  fidelity  to  the  missionary  purpose,  i 
He  was  accordingly  appointed  by  the  Board  and  sailed  for  India  in  January  1887,  j 
and  was  at  once  located  at  Fatehgarh,  and  shortly  afterwards  at  Jhansi. 

Not  long  after  undertaking  his  work  he  became  convinced  of  the  advisability  of 
attempting  to  do  away  with  the  social  gulf  between  native  and  foreigner,  and  in 
order  to  reach  the  people  in  the  most  intimate  way  he  surrendered  his  missionary 
salary  and  his  foreign  mode  of  living  and  went  to  dwell  among  the  people  in  the 
bazar,  living  in  a native  house  and  eating  native  food.  The  Board  and  the  Mission 
cordially  assented  to  his  experiment  and  asked  only  that  he  should  retain  his  full 
relationship  to  them  both  and  feel  free  to  return  to  his  former  status  and  mode  of 
living  at  any  time  if  it  should  be  found  desirable.  After  a fair  and  conscientious 
experiment  with  the  plan  which  he  had  adopted,  Mr.  Forman  resumed  his  work  and 
manner  of  life  of  the  other  missionaries,  having  found  the  exclusively  native  diet 
impossible  from  the  point  of  view  of  health  and  vigor,  and  having  determined  also 
that  nearness  to  the  native  people  is  a matter  of  sympathy  and  understanding  rather 
than  of  dress  and  mode  of  living. 

In  the  years  since,  Mr.  Forman  has  given  himself  in  unwearied  service  in  various 


r~ — — 

stations  of  the  North  India  Mission.  His  love  for  the  people  and  their  response 
to  his  love,  his  perfect  command  of  the  native  language,  his  untiring  zeal  and  his 
j evangelistic  fervour,  his  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  and  his  power  in  its  presentation 
to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  men,  his  humility  of  mind,  his  fearlessness  and 
j courage,  the  visible  evidence  in  his  life  and  upon  his  face  of  the  presence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  God  made  him  a missionary  among  a thousand.  There  was  not  a 
| preacher  of  Christ  in  India  more  faithful  and  fruitful  and  to  our  human  sight  more 
’ indispensable  than  he.  In  every  part  of  his  missionary  work  he  set  a true  example 
« for  all.  He  disliked  the  discussions  of  method  and  finance  and  the  mechanics  of 
| committee  work  and  organization,  but  he  filled  all  his  assignments  with  full  and 
uncomplaining  fidelity.  His  life  and  spirit  were  a constant  embodiment  of  the 
meekness  and  gentleness  and  also  of  the  strength  and  power  of  the  Saviour  whom  he 
loved  and  served. 

John  Forman  illustrated,  too,  fully  the  second  of  Goethe’s  principles  “without 
haste,  without  rest.'  He  was  busy  in  hot  season  and  cold  season  alike  in  India,  and 
when  at  home  on  furlough  he  never  ceased  his  work.  Either  among  the  educational 
institutions,  looking  for  new  missionaries,  or  in  the  churches,  or,  as  on  his  last 
furlough,  among  the  Indiau  peoples  from  the  Panjab  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  he  was 


. 


4 


ever  diligent  in  business.  It  was  only  too  evident  when  he  met  the  Board  at  the 
dinner  given  to  him  and  Dr.  Ewing  and  Dr.  AY  unless  on  November  16th  that  he  was 
overdrawing  his  strength.  The  end  came  as  he  would  have  wished  it  to  come,  while 
busy  in  his  Master’s  work.  Xow  at  last  to  him  who  would  never  rest  upon  earth 
has  been  given  the  rest  that  remaineth  on  high. 

The  Board  records’ its  grateful  love  of  his  memory,  its  thanksgiving  to  God  for 
all  that  he  achieved,  for  his  holy  example  and  his  faithful  work,  and  it  prays  that 
other  men  may  be  raised  up  in  America  and  in  India  who  will  serve  with  his  rare 
devotion  and  come  to  his  rich  reward. 

In  forwarding  the  above  Minute  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Ylissions,  Mr.  Bobert 

o o 1 

E.  Speer,  Secretary  of  the  Board,  writes  of  Mr.  Forman  : — 

“ I think  there  is  no  one  who  has  more  occasion  to  be  grateful  to  him  than 
I have.  I owe  to  him  more  than  to  anv  one  else  my  interest  in  the  foreign 
missionary  work  and  the  complete  upheaval  of  my  life  plans.” 

“ Thine  was  the  seed-time ; God  alone 
Beholds  the  end  of  what  is  sown  : 

Beyond  our  vision  weak  and  dim. 

The  harvest  time  is  hid  with  Him.’' 


Minute  passed  i 
by  the  North 
India  Mission 
at  a Memorial 
service  in  the 
Jumna  Presby- 
terian Church,  ' 
Allahabad,  on 
Sunday, 
October  13th, 

i 

of  which 
Mission  Mr. 
Forman  had 
been  a Member 
for 

thirty  years. 


HE  lapse  of  nearly  a year  has  not  affected  our  sense  of 
loss  as  a Mission  and  as  individuals  in  the  death  of  our 
trusted  leader  and  beloved  friend,  John  Newton  Forman. 
He  was  a man  of  keen  but  kindly  wit,  and  of  a rare 
discernment.  He  was  not  over  eager  to  take  part  in  debate,  but  when 
he  did  speak  he  was  listened  to  in  the  assurance  that  he  had  gone  to 
the  root  of  things.  His  intuitions  were  accurate,  and  his  reasoning 
still  more  so. 

He  was  an  eloquent  preacher — the  eloquence  not  only  of  clear 
thought  and  choice  language,  but  of  tremendous  and  masterful  earnest- 
ness. The  reason  was  not  far  to  seek.  He  was  a man  of  profound 
conviction,  especially  in  regard  to  God’s  word.  The  Bible  was  God’s 
touch  on  his  life;  and  he  not  only  responded  to  the  touch  but  repro- 
duced it.  He  brought  God  home  to  other  hearts. 

He  was  a man  of  rare  humility.  He  did  not  know  his  own 
greatness.  He  never  asked  for  anything  for  himself.  He  accepted 
great  tasks  but  never  sought  for  great  honours. 

O O O 


6 


Above  all,  he  was  a man  of  God  because  he  was  a man  of  prayer.  He 
talked  to  God  as  constantly  and  as  confidently  as  he  listened  to  Him  in  His 
word.  To  “pray  without  ceasing  ” was  not  a far-off  ideal  to  him.  All  through 
the  years  he  endured  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible.  That  he  should  pass  at 
a single  leap  from  the  world  of  shadows  to  the  home  of  shadeless  glory — from 
the  “ glass  darkly  ” to  the  “face  to  face’"' — seemed  only  natural.  It  was  scarcely  a 
leap  for  him — only  a step. 

And  we — we  grasp  our  swords  more  firmly  and  press  forward  more  purposefully, 
for  a warrior  from  among  us  has  been  crowned  a victor.  We  are  not  only  better  men 
and  women  for  having  known  John  Forman,  we  are  surer  of  God,  surer  of  Christ’s 
atoning  death  and  glorious  return,  surer  of  the  triumph  of  the  Kingdom.  Death 
is  swallowed  up  in  victory  ! 


“I  thank  mo  Sob  upon  ebery  remembrance  of  non,  for  tjour  fellowship  in 
the  (Gospel,  from  the  first  ban  until  noW.” 


SPinutc  of 
me  General 
.Assembly  or 
tbe 

Presbyterian 
Church  in 
India. 


XE  of  the  most  impressive  features  of  the  recent  Assembly- 
meeting  in  Nagpur  was  the  reading  of  brief  minutes  in 
memory  of  ministers  of  the  Church  who  had  passed  away 
since  the  previous  meeting  in  Lahore.  While  the  members 
solemn  silence,  Mr.  Wilkie  Brown,  Convener  of  the  Com- 
mittee appointed  to  prepare  the  minutes,  read  as  follows  : — 

And  what  shall  be  said  of  John  Forman? 

It  seems  so  recently  that  he  was  with  us,  kindling  in  us  a new 
faith  and  vision  in  connection  with  the  Forward  Movement  that  we 
find  it  hard  to  believe  that  he  has  gone  from  our  sight  into  the 
presence  of  the  King.  He  dwelt  there  habitually,  and  to  meet  John 
Forman  was  to  be  aware  of  a spirit  whose  dwelling  place  was  Christ. 
You  could  not  see  him  without  feeling  that  he  had  just  come  out  from 
the  Master’s  room  to  hold  converse  with  you  for  a time,  and  that 
presently  he  would  return  thither  for  further  communion.  To  many 
of  us  who  met  him  for  the  first  time  the  words  involuntarily  occurred  : 
“ There  was  a man  sent  from  God  whose  name  was  John.” 

Sent — yes,  without  a doubt — sent  to  help  to  inaugurate  that  great 
organisation  that  has  touched  young  life  round  the  whole  earth,  the 


8 


Student  Christian  Movement,  and  sent  again  to  help  to  rouse  and  to  direct  the 
movement  that  is  stirring  in  the  Indian  churches,  the  Evangelistic  Campaign,  the 
issues  of  which  are  yet  far-off.  Dates  and  localities  in  such  a life  have  so  little  place 
that  there  is  no  need  to  set  them  down  when  we  think  of  him.  The  beauty  of 
the  Master  whom  he  so  loved  and  served  has,  like  a rapture,  withdrawn  him  from 
our  fellowship  on  earth.  May  we  be  so  drawn  by  that  same  vision  that  men  shall 
see  the  Master  in  us  as  we  saw  Him  in  the  eyes  of  John  Forman. 

“ For  all  the  saints  who  from  their  labors  rest, 

Who  Thee  by  faith  before  the  world  confessed, 

Thy  name,  0 Jesus,  be  forever  blest, 

Alleluia ! 

Thou  wast  their  Rock,  their  Fortress,  and  their  Might, 

Thou,  Lord,  their  Captain  in  the  well-fought  fight. 

Thou  in  the  darkness  drear,  their  own  true  Light, 

Alleluia ! 

O may  Thy  soldiers,  faithful,  true,  and  bold. 

Fight  as  thy  saints  who  nobly  fought  of  old, 

'And  win  with  them  the  victor’s  crown  of  gold, 

Alleluia ! ” 


